Motivate Announces e-Bike Pilot Program to Launch in San Francisco in April 2018 | News

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Motivate Announces e-Bike Pilot Program to Launch in San Francisco in April 2018

New Shared Pedal-Assist e-Bikes Will Help Riders Tackle Hills and Commute Further, Seamlessly Integrating with Ford GoBike Memberships and Stations

Monday, January 8, 2018

Motivate International, the operator of the Bay Area’s regional bike share system, announced today it will add e-Bikes to its fleet, beginning with 250 e-Bikes in San Francisco this April. The pedal-assist e-Bikes, produced by Silicon Valley-based GenZe, will help riders by boosting their natural pedal power, so they can get up hills more easily and ride for longer distances. This new offering will integrate seamlessly with the Ford GoBike network and add a safe, reliable and affordable shared mobility option to the city.

“Our shared e-Bike is the newest product in our pipeline of innovative, sustainable mobility solutions,” said Jay Walder, CEO of Motivate. “We believe e-Bikes will be a game-changer for the San Francisco bikeshare experience, vastly improving accessibility and rideability. Hilly topographies and longer distances will be no sweat for riders on our e-Bikes, no matter their fitness or riding level.”

“E-Bikes will give Bay Area residents and visitors one more option when traveling around San Francisco, which will help to make San Francisco more livable and reduce congestion and household transportation costs. We look forward to the expansion of the Ford GoBike e-Bike pilot to the other Ford GoBike cities,” said Alix Bockelman, deputy executive director for policy at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), the regional governmental agency that partners with Motivate to bring bike sharing to the Bay Area. MTC also manages the Bay Area’s Clipper® card, which can now be used to unlock Ford GoBike.

“In many ways, e-Bikes are ideal for bikeshare programs because they make local, short-distance cycling easier for people,” said Vish Palekar, CEO of GenZe. “Our e-Bikes can go anywhere a conventional bicycle can go, including shared lanes and cycling paths – allowing riders to commute greater distances with no traffic and zero emissions. We’re excited to be a part of this innovative bikeshare initiative, and our partnership with Motivate.”

Riders can locate e-Bikes using the Ford GoBike app, rent them from any station where they are available using their Clipper card or smart phone, and park them at any station in San Francisco. For a limited time, Ford GoBike members and riders purchasing a day pass or single-trip fare will be able to ride an e-Bike at no extra cost. Bike Share for All members (low-income residents who become Ford GoBike annual members at the greatly discounted rate of $5 for their initial year) will always be able to use e-Bikes at no extra cost throughout the pilot, for rides of up to 60 minutes.

The custom e-Bikes were developed through a partnership with GenZe, a leading developer of zero-emissions, two-wheel electric vehicles. To announce the pilot program, the e-Bikes will be displayed at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a part of the tech show’s “Smart Cities” exhibit. The e-Bike’s maximum speed is 18 mph. It features a 345 Wh Li-ion battery and a user interface panel that lets riders know their speed and battery charge level.

By adding e-Bikes on a 12-month pilot basis, Motivate will be able to gather community feedback and work with its city partners to evaluate the results of the program before looking to add e-Bikes permanently to the Ford GoBike system.

Since launching in June, the Ford GoBike system has become an integral part of the Bay Area’s transportation network. With 262 stations and 2,600+ bikes on the ground across San Francisco, San Jose, Berkeley, Oakland and Emeryville, the system has generated more than half a million rides since launch in June of 2017. When completed in 2018, the 7,000-bike, 546-station Ford GoBike network will be the second-largest bike share system in North America, while setting new national standards in density, convenience and socio-economic equity.

About Motivate
Motivate, the global leader in bike share, operates tens of thousands of bikes across four continents. Led by an executive team with deep experience at the highest levels of public transportation and technology, the company is relentlessly focused on innovation and has a proven and sustainable business model to manage complex operations and logistics. A vertically integrated company, Motivate controls the full technology stack, enabling us to lead on the design and deployment of the next generation of bike share technology. Motivate works in close partnership with government officials to implement bike share systems that meet the unique needs of the cities in which we operate. Motivate systems, including Citi Bike in New York, Divvy in Chicago, Capital Bikeshare in the D.C. area, Hubway in the Boston area, BIKETOWN in Portland and Ford GoBike in the San Francisco Bay Area, are responsible for over 80 percent of bike share trips taken annually. To learn more please visit the Motivate newsroom at www.motivateco.com/news.

About the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC)
MTC is the transportation planning, financing and coordinating agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

About GenZe
GenZe has a simple motto: “Two Wheels. One Planet. Zero Emissions.” GenZe is committed to providing easily-accessible personal transportation through e-Bikes and e-Scooters loaded with smart, connected technology and powered by sustainable, zero-emissions electric energy. GenZe manufactures and assembles in Ann Arbor, Michigan with corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley. GenZe is a division of the globally-expanding $19 billion Mahindra Group, which focuses on enabling people to rise through new and better solutions to tomorrow’s challenges. The Mahindra Group is a worldwide leader in aerospace, automotive, utility vehicles, tractors, motorcycles, clean energy, and more For more information on GenZe, visit www.genze.com